1 Cor No.12 Personal Discipline

1 Corinthians, in chapter 6, verse 12. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Food for the stomach, and the stomach for food. But God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

By His power, God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never. Do you not know that He who unites Himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said that two will become one flesh.

But He who unites Himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body.

But he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price.

Therefore, honor God with your body. Now I'd be glad if you'd have your Bibles open at that reading from the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians. I wonder if you're ever tempted to say, on coming to such a church as this, that the preaching is irrelevant.

That what the minister or the one who occupied the pulpit had to say had got little to do with the complexities of your life in the 20th century. Well, admitting to the flaws of the pulpit, and particularly this one, in no sense could anyone realistically make the conclusion that God's Word as found in the Bible has nothing to do with our lives in the 20th century. Maybe the preacher didn't handle the Word properly.

Maybe he didn't apply what the Bible taught in a relevant fashion to you. But basically, locked in from Genesis all the way through to Revelation, there is in this holy unique book instruction which is vital for people, particularly those of us who were destined in God's sovereignty to live in the 1980s. And I say that this remains a conclusion that one would hold onto when considering Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

If ever there was a time when we needed to be brought face to face with some of the difficult subjects that he handles here, it is today. And the apostle, in a very remarkable fashion, brings to our attention a variety of subject matter and causes us to fix our eyes and stay our minds upon them. He has already brought to our attention the divisiveness that there often is within Christian communities, the personality cult.

And of course, he warns against this. He deals with the matter of excommunication and applying church discipline. And in days when such things are largely ignored, it is good for us to look into Scripture about these matters.

And then last time we gathered together around this particular passage, you'll remember how the apostle, with the authority of the Holy Spirit, is denouncing any Christian who dares to take a Christian brother or sister to court, to a secular authority, and ask unregenerate men to pass judgment on matters which should be settled within the local church community. Well, Paul by no means is exhausted of subject matter. And in the latter part of this chapter and on into the seventh, he is going to handle some of the most delicate, sensitive issues of life.

Now I confess I'm not the boldest of preachers. And left to myself, I doubt whether I would ever have brought to the attention of a congregation his teaching from the twelfth verse of this chapter and on into the seventh. But there again, that is the wisdom of engaging in expository preaching, when our curriculum, so to speak, is dictated not by the fancy, the whim of the preacher, but by the content of Holy Scripture.

And having already argued that the whole book from Genesis to Revelation is relevant today, then what right have we to hop over passages of Scripture which seem to deal with delicate things which need skillful handling? So with that in mind, this Sunday and next, I ask for your rapt attention as we look into what the Bible has to say about human behavior patterns and human sexuality. In coming to these verses, I think it would be helpful if I suggested to you an outline on which you can hang your thinking. I'm not in any way arguing that this is the only possible skeleton, but here are two or three headings which will help us as we push our way through these verses right now.

It seems to me that in the twelfth and the thirteenth verses, the apostle is referring to slogans which have to be qualified. Slogans which have to be qualified. I'll refer to them in some detail in a moment.

And then from the fourteenth verse and down to the seventeenth verse, he makes reference to some doctrines which need to be recognized. And then finally, the last few verses from the seventeenth, rather from the eighteenth to the end of the chapter, there are some privileges which need to be exercised. Slogans to be qualified, doctrines which need to be emphasized or recognized, and privileges also which need emphasis.

Well, let's deal with the first part of our study, slogans to be qualified. The apostle, I remind you, is dealing with the whole problem of Christian ethics, the way that Christian people ought to live. In the area of morality.

Now, why does he have to deal with this? Well, if you lived at Corinth, you would fully understand. In the beginning of this letter, he makes reference to the fact that there were saints at Corinth, and that was a remarkable assertion, that saints, Christian people, followers of the Lord Jesus, should actually dwell in Corinth, which was almost the headquarters of immorality in the Roman world. And it was very, very difficult for these people, who had, by God's grace, elected to follow Jesus Christ, to ensure that morally, in their behavior, they were living in a way which pleased God.

You remember from the ninth verse to the eleventh verse of this particular chapter, the sixth chapter, references made to the type of lifestyle that these people were delivered from. Here was the quarry in which they found themselves before the Word of God came, and they were hewn out of the quarry of idolaters, sexually immoral, adulterers, homosexuals, and so forth. Obviously, these people would have problems when they became Christian.

How were they to live? To what extent was the old life to be completely rejected? Well, it's this topic that Paul addresses himself to, and as I say, it's contemporary in its need. I had a letter out of Brazil just a couple of months ago, and that letter was from a dear friend of mine, and she had to say that one of the great difficulties in some of the cities of Brazil is the open immorality, and how difficult it is to go down a street without being accosted by a woman or a man with the idea of some immoral purpose at hand. Now, that situation does not only exist in Brazil.

I could take you to some continental cities where the sewers are up at pavement level, and where the immorality is obvious. And it seems to me, though perhaps we're not quite as bad as some areas, there is more than a little indication that things in the moral realm are getting worse and worse in our own country. So, away with any objection that this teaching of the Apostle Paul has got no relevance for the twentieth century.

It's got a great deal of relevance for us. Well, what about these slogans, then, that Paul is to qualify? Why does he make reference to certain slogans? Or perhaps you're not even aware that he does so in these twelfth and thirteenth verses. Those of you who have the NIV version of the Bible here are at an advantage to friends who are studying from the AV, because the quotations are actually there in quotation marks.

Everything is permissible for me. That's the first one. Then it's repeated, the end of the twelfth verse.

Everything is permissible for me. And then in the thirteenth verse, food for the stomach, and the stomach for food. As I say, they're in quotation marks.

Why is Paul lifting out these quotations and bringing them to the attention of his readership? Well, he's doing so because there are certain people in the church at Corinth who believe that when Paul spoke about the liberty of the gospel message and the freedom that it brings, it meant that they could engage in any immoral pursuit whatsoever. In other words, they were quoting the apostle Paul. You said to us when you came here that we are freed, those of us from a Jewish background, from the law of Moses.

Therefore, everything is permissible. And what's wrong with us still indulging in the old lifestyle that we used to enjoy before the gospel was proclaimed? Is not this exactly what you're teaching, Paul? Well, Paul takes those quotations and he qualifies them. He puts them into context.

Yes, in one sense, everything is permissible. Christianity is not a gathering together of many, many regulations. There is a freedom when one comes to Jesus Christ.

But that freedom has certain inbuilt qualifications. Everything is permissible for me that advantages, that is to the advantage of my spiritual well-being. Therefore, says the apostle, not everything is beneficial.

He repeats the quotation. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. What is the apostle referring to? If you were to take this particular dictum to its extreme, that everything is permissible for the Christian, he's no need to be too worried about food that he eats, about drink that he takes, about sexual activity.

It could well be that the liberty, the license he believes he has, becomes his own master. And instead of enjoying the freedom of the gospel, there he is enslaved again, enslaved to drink, enslaved to smoke, to cigarettes and what have you, enslaved to sex. No, says the apostle Paul, that is absurd.

Everything is permissible to me, the sense that I have liberty in Christ Jesus. But what interferes with my spiritual well-being that I must put on one side and reject? I will not be mastered by anything. I will not be a slave, neither to drink, nor to food, nor to sex.

Paul makes the qualification of these slogans which are being bandied around by certain people in the church at Corinth. But there's another one that they raise. They make reference to this whole business of food.

Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food. Why are they saying this? Well, again, they are quoting the apostle Paul, but they are going to make a conclusion that he will not agree to. Why are they talking about food? Well, you see, it is a great problem at Corinth, as a Christian, to buy food.

You went down to the local equivalent of Sainsbury's, and you discovered that all the meat had previously been offered to idols. So what does a Christian do, starve? Later on, Paul has to deal with this particular problem. In fact, he's probably touched on it before, and he's come to the conclusion that Christians are not to be oversensitive in this area.

After all, what is food? Food is just to be used for the stomach. It has no more importance than that, and used with restraint, used wisely, it's good for the body. Well, say these people, if that is so, food for the stomach, and stomach for food, then sexual behavior, that only affects the body.

It doesn't affect the spirit, and provided we are not harming our spirit, Paul, then there is no problem at all about us still engaging in the generally accepted patterns of sexual behavior here at Corinth. You see what they're doing? They're doing what many people do to this present day. They're quoting completely out of context.

They're pushing the truth to an extreme and making it absurd. Yes, Paul had spoken about the freedom that there is on the part of the man who'd come to Jesus and found that he was his Lord and Savior. Doubtless, he quoted the words of our Lord Jesus, when the sun sets, you're free, you're free indeed.

But if that freedom brings you into a slavery in any area of your life, then obviously, you are not to damage yourself, whether it's in the area of food and gluttony, wine and drunkenness, sexual behavior, leading to immorality. These things, says the apostle Paul, have got to be qualified. Food for the stomach and stomach for food.

But, says the apostle, God will destroy them both. As one Puritan writer says in an uncommon piece of humor, God has no permanent plans for the stomach. Time will come when the body will need neither food nor the organs to digest it.

And so, here are slogans that need to be qualified, and the apostle Paul seeks to do this, and he'll continue to do it in the next section that I bring to your attention, when I refer to doctrines which need to be recognized. Doctrines which need to be recognized. Stay with me in the 13th verse, will you? Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy them both.

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but the Lord, and the Lord for the body. The apostle, now, is going to talk about the Christian view of the body, and also the way that our expectation of resurrection will affect the way that we live today. Corinth, in Paul's day, and ourselves here in Worthing, today.

When the apostle Paul makes reference to the word body, he does so thinking not just in terms of our physical anatomy, he's talking in terms of our total personality. Who does the body belong to? The body, the way that Paul uses it, is not just the addition of stomach, plus arms, plus legs, plus head. The body is the total personality.

It is to be seen of in terms of that which makes me, me, and you, you, our distinctive life, our distinctive, I can think of no better word, personality. To whom does that belong? Well, says the apostle Paul, it belongs to the Lord God. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Let's drop down to the 17th verse, and it becomes even more clear. He who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. What does that mean? Well, you will be aware that later on in this epistle, Paul makes reference to the body of Christ.

And by the body of Christ, he's not thinking of the physical anatomy of Jesus when he was on earth, he's talking about his followers. You and I, we belong to Jesus Christ. We are part of his body, the mystical body on this earth.

So, I am the representative of Jesus, in a very real, in a very wonderful sense. Jesus lives on in me. He indwells my body, as we will see in a moment or two.

I am his representative. I am linked into Jesus. I am partaker, says the apostle Peter, of the divine nature.

Now, in that sense, the apostle Paul here is using the word body. I, as a Christian, my whole personality, have become part, by the grace of God, of the body of Jesus Christ. Therefore, how I use my body is extremely important.

I am using what God has given me. And God is concerned as to the way in which I employ it. Look at the 15th verse.

Here, Paul's going to be very, very blunt indeed. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? That's precisely what I've just argued. Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never, says Paul, and he uses the strongest Greek language that there is for a negative.

You can't bring it out in the English vernacular. Never do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body. For it is said that two will become one flesh.

Now, here is the predicament. Here is the absurd notion, says the apostle. You claim to belong to Jesus Christ.

And let's say, at least academically, you're wondering whether you can go back to the promiscuity at Corinth. You're wondering whether you can engage in the sort of worship that is offered in that hill temple that overshadows the whole of this Greek metropolis. Well, your body, it belongs to Jesus.

You're a partaker of the divine nature. You're one with him. Now, what is the Christian doctrine of sexual behavior? That when a man takes a woman to be his wife and physically they unite, the two have become one flesh.

And in the eyes of God and within the context of marriage, that is an honorable thing. There is no desecration of the body at all. But when a man who claims to belong to God, partaker of the divine nature, engages in immoral practice, he who is redeemed unites himself to one who is unclean and unregenerate.

He satisfies his lust. He engages in conduct which brings the reputation of Christianity down to the level of the gutters in Corinth. Says Paul, the whole notion is ridiculous.

Never! My dear friend, you cannot treat your body without a due amount of care and attention. Because your body has been given to you by the Lord. And it is part and parcel of your responsibility as a Christian to look after your body.

That's one of the reasons why I question whether a Christian should ever indulge in extreme conduct in the area of drinking or smoking. He is not to do anything that he knows could affect his body. Now, there's another aspect of this teaching, and I trust you with me.

It's not too easy, but I'm doing my best to make it as plain as possible. And it's all found here within what Paul has to say. He's arguing against immorality simply because of his understanding of the body of the Christian.

And he links that to another doctrine. And that is the resurrection of the body. Go back to the 14th verse.

Here the apostle tells us that by his power, God raised the Lord from the dead. And he will raise us also. Jesus Christ, Paul will later argue, is the first fruit of the resurrection.

Now, here I am as a Christian on this earth. I know that I've got seeds of decay in my body. That's why I don't look as young as I looked 11 years ago when I came into this pulpit.

I'm decaying before your very eyes. And if that makes you smile, remember, I'm looking at you. And can remember what you were like 10 or 11 years ago also.

There are the seeds of corruption in this body. Paul later on will refer to it in, or in his Philippian letter, he will refer to it as a vile body. He will refer to it as a body with many, many shortcomings.

But having made all the criticism of the body, remember this. That in one sense, that I don't claim to understand, the essence of this body shall be raised again to newness of life on the second coming of Jesus Christ. This mortal will put on immortality.

This corruption shall put on incorruption. This is why the human body is always to be treated with respect. The essence of our body shall be raised to newness of life.

And so you see the illogicality of a man or a woman for that matter, who is a Christian, believing that they can use their body wrongly in the sexual sense. Impromiscuity. Now don't misunderstand Paul.

He's not speaking against sex. He is applauding it as a God-given gift within certain contexts that scripture clearly defines. Outside of that, says Paul, you harm your body.

And you're harming that body which in essence shall be raised from the dead at the last trump, when the Christ shall return. So you see how interesting Paul's argument for a moral way of life is. It's not just the argument of the purest.

It's not just the argument of the ethical person in the 20th century who's got no understanding of theology behind it. Paul takes that argument, but he deepens it. He adds muscle to it.

And he argues on the basis that our bodies have been won, have been purchased by Jesus Christ at Calvary. The essence of our body shall be raised again when the Lord Jesus Christ comes. Now says Paul, if you understand that, it becomes absurd that you could ever argue everything is permissible for me as far as sexual malpractice is concerned.

It is ridiculous, says the apostle, never. The Lord is united with him who has confessed Jesus as Savior, and he is to glorify God in his body and in his spirit. Well, let's move on.

I've looked at quotations which need to be qualified. We've also considered doctrines which need to be recognized. Now finally, and quickly, privileges which need to be emphasized.

And once again, you'll see the flow of logic in Paul's teaching here. Let's jump immediately, shall we, to the 19th verse. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? You have received from God.

You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.

What are the two basic privileges of the Christian that Paul touches on here? The first is this, his body is a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. And secondly, he has been bought, his salvation has been bought by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you recognize those privileges, it will once again stimulate you to a moral, God-honoring way of life.

I remember some time ago passing Taring Road, one of the shops there, which had been taken over by another organization. And it had the sign, Under New Management. And I guess, if I remember correctly, it was a restaurant.

I guess the idea was, the reputation up to that point hadn't been particularly good. But a new management's come in, and therefore customers can be assured that the service is going to be that much better. Now, you could praise see Paul's argument in this section of his teaching, in those words, Under New Management.

That describes you as a Christian. You're under new management. Your body has the Spirit of God indwelling it.

You have been bought, your salvation has been bought by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, you are to treat your body. With an eye to making your heavenly guest feel at home.

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Right. If you know that, go back to the 18th verse. Flee from sexual immorality.

Why should I flee from that? Because it's an embarrassment to God. It's an embarrassment to the Holy Spirit. All other sins, says the Apostle, that a man commits are outside his body.

He's referring there specifically to drunkenness and to gluttony. There are other sins inasmuch as they come from outside. Their effect can, in large measure, be corrected by abstinence.

The man who is given over to more alcohol than he should take in, at all, can correct this deficiency by becoming an abstainer. The man who is constantly putting food into his stomach and is suffering as a result, again, he can correct this by abstinence. But he who sins sexually, sins against his own body.

You don't so easily cancel out the effects of an immoral way of life. And, says the Apostle Paul, when you engage in sexual malpractice, you grieve the Holy Spirit of God who is within you. Earlier on in the third chapter, he's argued against those who might, in any sense, bring disrepute to the temple of God.

And there he was thinking in terms of the corporate Christian community. But now he's thinking of you and me as individuals. If I indulge myself outside of a marital situation, if I indulge myself in any degree of sexual perversion, then I am harming the Holy Spirit.

And my privilege as a Christian is to have Him within my heart. But more than that, the Apostle Paul says, what about the privilege of your redemption? You are not your own. You've been bought with a price.

You see, Paul will take us back to Calvary. Isn't it amazing how Calvary is the focal point of our Christian conduct? I remember how Jesus died on that cross. He shed His precious blood for me.

I recognize that it was a terrible day. When God the Son took upon Himself the consequences of my sin, there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let me in.

Now, when I remember that I'm part of those whom Christ has ransomed by the shedding of His blood, when I realize that privilege, I want to be done with anything that might soil my Christian testimony, anything that might pollute me. I will guard my body. I will offer it in the service of God.

I will discipline my body. You see, God never does anything on this earth. Have you thought of this? Outside of the body, I'm referring to the communication of the gospel.

I'm referring to the purposes of God for humanity. They always are affected by some body. Abraham is God's man in the book of Genesis.

To achieve God's purposes and he does it through his body and through his speech, through his life. When Jesus comes into this world, the psalmist predicts His coming and speaks for him saying, A body thou hast prepared for me. Now, it's the body that's always under fire, so to speak.

It's the body that's so vulnerable. It's the body that the devil attacks. Here are these poor, poor Christians at Corinth and they know full well what it's like to be tempted, to be tempted beyond measure.

And so the apostle says, have done with it, flee. Flee from making provision for the, for the body. And in refusing to make provision, the apostle Paul recognizes that the Christian will be able to live a life that is holy and that is pure in the service of God.

I'll close just now as our friends are trying to get our poor friend out of the congregation. And I'll bring these conclusions again to your attention next week. You are not your own.

You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. Father, as we've looked into this delicate passage of your word, help us to apply any correctives that might be necessary.

Perhaps not so much in our physical actions, but maybe in our thought patterns and enable us to be pure and honorable in your sight. Be with thee, dear soul, taken ill and whatever the matter may be, we ask that it shall be righted. Send us on our way rejoicing and bring us back this evening to glory in the fact of the gospel message.

So we ask for your blessing, the blessing of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now and always. Amen.